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The Stevens Basin Property
The Stevens Basin Property is located on the prolific Battle Mountain Gold Trend of Nevada, approximately 9 km (5.6 miles) southwest of Barrick Gold's Archimedes/Ruby Hill open pit gold mine.
The Stevens Basin Project is 100% controlled by Columbus Gold.
The claim block covers a 9 m by 30 m (30 ft by 100 ft) jasperoid (silicified limestone), which occurs at the base of a small hill of Devonian limestone, at the break in slope where bedrock passes under the gravel cover of Stevens Basin. Twelve samples of the jasperoid run from 1 to 2 g/t (0.029 to 0.058 opt) gold. Stevens Basin is an unusual semi-circular gravel basin surrounded by hills of Paleozoic sedimentary rocks, and is approximately 10-13 sq. km (4-5 sq. miles) in diameter. The property is along the north margin of the basin. Mapping to date indicates the outcrop areas are mostly Devonian limestone, with areas of altered and mineralized intrusive and siltstone float.
Sampling in the covered areas adjoining the limestone hill(s) was of the coarser chips screened from fine soil in areas of no outcrop. The sampling yielded a gold anomaly (all samples greater than 100 ppb, with a high of 2,505 ppb and numerous samples exceeding 500 ppb) that arcs around the base of the hill for about 760 m (2,500 ft) in total length and 30-90 m (100-300 ft) in width. The gold anomaly coincides with significant anomalies of arsenic (from 100 to 1450 ppm), antimony (from 50 to 725 ppm), and mercury (from 1 to 70 ppm).
In 2010, Navaho Gold completed a ground gravity survey and acquired airborne magnetic data which enabled it to interpret structures and to optimize the selection of drill sites. Drilling carried-out in 2011 consisted of 2,390 m (7,840 ft) in 14 RC holes.
Six of the 14 holes drilled contain encouraging intercepts of low-grade gold mineralization which, when combined with strongly anomalous arsenic (As), antimony (Sb), barium (Ba), thallium (Tl) and zinc (Zn) also intersected in many of the holes may indicate proximity to higher grade Carlin-style mineralization. Using a cut-off grade of 0.1 g/t Au over minimum interval of 3 m and no more than 1.5 m internal dilution, the following encouraging intercepts were returned:
• SB11-003 4.6 m @ 0.30 gpt gold from 64 m
• SB11-009 15.2 m @ 0.18 gpt gold from 35 m
• SB11-014 4.6 m @ 0.25 gpt gold from 41 m
Mineralization in these 3 holes is hosted within oxidized, sheared and variably fractured/brecciated limestone with extensive calcite veining and jasperoid development (decalcification and silicification- usually associated with a Carlin-style gold mineralized system).
All 14 holes returned intercepts containing anomalous (> 10 ppb or 0.010 gpt) values of gold. Of particular importance is the thickness of the anomalous gold interval in SB11-009 (109.7 m from 1.5 m depth) which indicates a significant gold-bearing hydrothermal system has been identified.
In addition to the elevated gold intercepts several holes encountered zones of anomalous arsenic (up to 0.15% As over 9.1 m in SB11-05; 0.13% As over 36.6 m in SB11-012), anomalous zinc (2.03% Zn over 7.6 m in SB11-11), anomalous barium (0.47% Ba over 87 m in SB11-11; 0.84% Ba over 6.1 m in SB11-05; 0.77% Ba over 7.6 m in SB11-10) and thallium (2.4ppm Tl over 12.2 m in SB11-05; 1.5 ppm Tl over 74.7 m in SB11-09; 3 ppm Tl over 7.6 m in SB11-10; 1.5 ppm Tl over 83.8 m in SB11-13). These elements are all strong indicators of a Carlin-style system.
At Barrick Gold Corp's Archimedes/Ruby Hill gold mine, located in a similar structural setting, 9 km to the northeast of Stevens Basin, the gold mineralization has an association with elevated base-metals (zinc in particular) and barite-rich hydrothermal breccias. The Archimedes deposit also occurs in close proximity to a Cretaceous intrusive stock and, given the elevated zinc returned from hole SB11-11 at Stevens Basin, widespread Ba anomalism and the possible existence of an intrusive body in the central portion of Stevens Basin as inferred from the airborne magnetic data, Navaho Gold believes that the drill results to date at Stevens Basin could indicate an analogous mineralized setting to the Archimedes/Ruby Hill deposit.
Navaho Gold has commenced a Phase II drilling program at Stevens Basin consisting of 1,200 m (3,937 ft) of RC drilling in up to 10 holes. The program is designed to follow-up on the highly anomalous gold mineralization intersected in hole SB11-009 as well as to test: a further suite of structural features identified from interpretation of gravity data, a magnetic target, and, further multi-element soil anomalies defined by additional sampling.
Mr. Mark Dugmore, B.App.Sc., M.Sc., who is a Member of The Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy is the Qualified Person under NI 43-101 who has reviewed and approved the technical content of this project description pertaining to the drilling results. Mr. Dugmore is employed by Navaho Gold Ltd.
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